Brilliant But Cancelled: Crime Dramas

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All Rise...

If you have to call yourself brilliant, Judge Paul Corupe thinks your brilliance might not be self-evident.

The Charge

Gone, but not entirely forgotten.

The Case

Here's a DVD where the idea is far better than the actual execution. A
showcase for prematurely yanked TV shows, Brilliant But Cancelled was a
popular program that originally aired on the since-defunct Trio. Now, Trio's
parent network Bravo has launched the branded concept into cyberspace, offering
up a website that features viewable episodes of short-lived series like EZ
Streets, Touching Evil, and The Jake Effect. To tie in with
this unveiling, Universal has also released a pair of "Brilliant But
Cancelled" DVDs: one of EZ Streets, and a second compilation called
Crime Dramas that serves up four not-so-classic TV shows that lasted a
season or less: Delvecchio, Gideon Oliver, Johnny Staccato
and Touching Evil. Let's break it down show-by-show:

Delvecchio A precursor to Hill Street Blues, Steven
Bochco's Delvecchio is a great place to start with this release. This
notable show starred Judd Hirsch (Dear John) as an LAPD detective who
also happens to be an aspiring lawyer. Though it starts out a tad slow,
"Licensed to Kill" is a smart episode. Delvecchio get involved his
goddaughter's funeral plans when her death is ruled a suicide, and the family's
Catholic priest refuses to bury her in consecrated ground. As a favor,
Delvecchio investigates and discovers that her doctor, a "quack"
physiotherapist, has been prescribing medicine illegally. Intricate,
tightly-written and well-acted, this is an impressive series that was perhaps a
little ahead of its time, a missing link of sorts between mystery shows like
Quincy and Columbo and the aforementioned Hill Street
Blues. Strange, though—there's no title sequence on this episode (a
theme music rights issue, perhaps?), and the transfer looks really ugly for a
'70s show, with obvious digital artifacting and a soft, washed-out look.
Ugh.

Gideon Oliver Along with a brand new update of Columbo
and the Burt Reynolds-starring B.L. Stryker, Gideon Oliver was
part of a late-1980s attempt by ABC to spin off NBC's rotating "Mystery
Movie" format that found major success in the 1970s. Starring Louis Gossett
Jr. (Iron Eagle) as a Columbia anthropology
professor who uses his specialized knowledge to solve crimes with his astute
daughter Zina (Shari Headley, Coming to
America), the Dick Wolf-produced Gideon Oliver lasted a mere five
weeks. This 90-minute TV movie, entitled "Sleep Well Professor
Oliver," seems to be the debut episode. It spends a good deal of time
setting up the character of Oliver, as he is embroiled in a series of murders
that appears to be the work of a cult of Satanists. Turns out that the daughter
of a slain colleague is caught up in the sect, and Oliver vows to get her out
before she is forced to turn her daughter over to the Prince of Darkness. The
show itself is not bad if a little standard, similar to the police procedural
half of Wolf's hit Law & Order, only with Oliver spending his time
interviewing doctors, experts and other professors for insight rather than perps
and suspects. This particular episode is written a little broadly, with the
Satanists involved in everything from drugs and kiddie porn to straight up human
sacrifices—even making a connection with the Son of Sam—but it's
entertaining enough. Guest stars Michael Rooker and the troubled Tom Sizemore
are both good in their roles, as is Gossett Jr. He probably could have made this
stick around a few seasons if they spent more time developing the actual mystery
rather than having the portly 53-year-old make implausible flying tackles on his
assailants. The DVD quality is pretty typical for a show from the 1980s, nothing
to complain about here.

Johnny Staccato Undoubtedly the highlight of this release is an
episode of Johnny Staccato, a cool noirish series about a jazz musician
P.I. played by John Cassavetes in the same year that he directed Shadows. Though only half-an-hour long and
obviously shot on the cheap, the show packs quite a punch, with tough-guy
dialogue, wild twists and turns, and evocative black and white cinematography.
"Tempted" sees Johnny protecting a diamond necklace owned by the
amorous ex-wife of a former friend, and getting robbed for his trouble. Was it
all a set-up by the femme fatale after the insurance money? Johnny thinks it is,
and gets an insurance investigator to help lay a trap. The episode may not be
the best the series had to offer, but it should tip audiences to this no-frills,
bare-knuckle mystery drama that nicely showcased Cassavetes' acting skill.
Johnny Staccato is long overdue on DVD—it's too bad that we don't
get everything released as a season set rather than this teaser. The show looks
great, too, easily comparable to the digital transfers of other recent Universal
shows from the same era.

Touching Evil Perhaps it's my lack of interest in recent
season-building, style-over-substance crime dramas, but the USA Network's
Touching Evil was easily the worst thing I've seen in a while. Based on a
British mini-series of the same name, the by-the-numbers show follows the
exploits of Organized and Serial Crime FBI detectives David Creegan (Jeffrey
Donovan, Hitch) and Susan Branca (Vera Farmiga, Down to the Bone).
Creegan, whose brain injury from an earlier gunshot has made him a loose cannon,
is kept in line by the straight-laced Branca. "K," this particular
episode, has a group of drug-addled delinquents murdering animals and people, as
inspired by the violent work of a local artist. Too bad it all plays like a
watered-down version of Larry Clark's Bully with paper-thin characterizations and
lame attempts at portraying "controversial" behavior . Worst of all,
Creegan and Branca have zero chemistry together, possibly because Donovan is too
busy brooding and mugging for the camera while Farmiga struggles with
cringe-inducing line readings. Because Touching Evil has multiple-episode
story arcs, it's not even really the best series that could have been included
on a compilation, since I had no idea who some of the characters were supposed
to be, or what motivated their actions. Brilliant? Not even a bit, but at least
the transfer is top notch for both audio and video.

I really like the idea of this set and I'd love to see more forgotten gems
like this one make it to DVD. It's just too bad this disc is a mixed bag, with
little repeat value. It works best as a teaser for the site, which is probably
all it was intended to do anyway—though it's a shade overpriced to serve
that purpose. Those interested in Brilliant But Cancelled: Crime Dramas
may just want to skip out on the disc and watch some of these episodes
online.